A PRESENT
HELPER.

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A SermonPUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY25TH, 1915,
DELIVERED BY C.H.SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
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I
am with thee.” - Acts xviii. 10.

THE
Apostle Paul was about to be placed in imminent peril. He was to be
brought before the Roman governor Gallio. The Jews, rank and rabble,
were hopeful that they would get him condemned to death. In this
threatening crisis the Lord Jesus would give him a word of comfort to
strengthen him, that his courage might not fail. The best, the most
assuring word that the Saviour could speak to his servant was this, “I
am with thee.” Nothing in heaven or earth could be more fitted to cheer
his tried spirit. To know that Jesus was with him, approving,
supporting, defending him, was a safeguard against fear. Years
afterwards, when Paul had to stand before the Roman emperor, whose will
was absolute, whose fiat could have put him to instant death, he had no
man who dare stand by him. A poor despired servant of a despised Master,
he was not then cast down or disheartened, for he says, “Nevertheless,
the Lord stood by me.” Under the worst circumstances, true Christians
find the richest comfort if they do but know that Jesus is with them.
When our Lord went away to heaven, and left His disciples on earth, they
were like a ﬂock
of sheep surrounded with wolves. Just then He would surely give them, as
a parting word, the tenderest and the most encouraging sentence that
could fall from His lips. What think you was that word? Why, one of his
farewell words was this, “Lo, I am
with you always”—a dear and blessed legacy to His children who are
still in banishment below. And when John, in Patmos, had a vision of
Jesus in His glory, where, think you, did he see Him? Did he see Him as
standing before the throne, or in any position of glory? Yes, he did;
but first of all he says, “I saw Him walking amongst the golden
candlesticks.” Now, he tells us, these golden candelabra represented the
churches, and Jesus Christ was pictured even as a glorified Saviour,
holding the seven stars in His right hand, and walking among the seven
golden candlesticks. Hence I gather that the truest comfort of the
Church is for Christ to be with us, and that one of the highest joys of
Jesus is to be with His people. I shall ask you now to consider the
grateful fact that Jesus is with believers. The words, “I am with thee”
may be taken in three ways, and the three must be combined to get the
whole of their sense. “I am with thee.” This implies His
presence. That would not be
enough; a person is not with us if he is merely in the same place as a
spectator. “I am with thee” expresses His
sympathy. He is not here as a stranger, but He is here feeling for
us, compassionating with us. “I am with thee” has a yet deeper
significance. It involves succour.
He is working with thee - on the same side - exerting His power in
connection with thine. Put the three together, and you get presence,
sympathy, co-operation, to interpret the meaning. We will take the three
words, and oh! as we take them, may we realise them as our own. The
words “I am with thee” leave no doubt of:

I. THE
PRESENCE OF
CHRIST.
Believer, Jesus Christ’s spiritual and
most real presence is with you. This should greatly comfort you, because
it is the presence of One Whom you dearly love, and Who reciprocates
that affection with an accord so intimate that every hope or fear you
feel is reflected in His breast. His heart beats true to you. I might
almost say His nerves vibrate in sympathy with you. Oh! how it calms the
mind in the midst of difficulty or danger, if we have near us, by our
side, One toward Whom our heart goes forth, and from Whom a kindred
yearning comes back! The child sleeps sweetly when it is with its
mother, watched and tended by her quick eye and ready hand. The
loneliest part of the pilgrim’s road is relieved of its tediousness and
its terror when some dear companion is with him, in whose fellowship he
can agree, upon whose arm he may lean, and whose constancy he can trust
to share any danger. A sprightly word, a kindly look, a brotherly act,
seem like timely aid to us all when we are jaded, footsore, out of our
course, and out of spirits. Ah! then, you could not have a sweeter
friend with you than you have in Jesus. The society of brother or
sister, husband or wife, parent or guardian, can never equal the
hallowed peace of communion with Jesus, Who loved you, lived for you,
died for you, lives for you still, gives His whole heart to you, and
only asks that you give your heart to Him in return. Still more precious does this presence
of Jesus become when we think how ennobling it is. Some people talk all
their life long of having been once in the society of some great person.
That is, indeed, a foolish pride, very empty. But to have been in the
society of Jesus is worthy to be remembered, deserving to be recorded,
and most desirable to be repeated. I reckon that the angels would look
more respectfully towards a man who has had communion with Jesus than
they would at a council of kings and emperors, or a parliament of
princes and peers. We are made priests and kings who enter into
fellowship with our great High Priest and King. His glory overshadows
us. Though He is transfigured in a way we are not, yet we participate
somewhat in His honours now, and we shall be altogether partakers of His
glory by-and-bye. “I am with thee”, then, is the voice of a tender
Friend, and one of a superior nature, Who confers dignity by His
companionship.This “I am with thee” is an enlivening
cry. It inspirits a man, quickens his pulse, and enables him to bid
defiance to danger. We remember when Paul was in the ship tossed with
tempest, what consternation seized all persons on board. So much were
they discouraged that they would probably have been unable to do
anything for their own rescue had not Paul, with the coolness of faith,
chided their panic, given them counsel, and bidden them to eat, for, as
he said, “this is for your health”. After long fasting, he saw the
necessity of taking refreshment. And he led the way. He took bread, gave
thanks to God in the presence of them all, then broke the bread, and
himself began to eat. This manly fortitude, this moral courage of the
Apostle, repressed the general agitation and nerved them all with fresh
hope, insomuch that they were all of good cheer, and they also took some
food. This was the turning point in their fortune; and, in the issue,
they everyone came safe to land. Thus full often has it been in the time
of battle. When the troops have been ready to flee, one able man has
stood like a rock, has made caution look like cowardice by his own
defiance of danger, has given a word which has made every soldier feel
himself a hero, lion-hearted, not milk-livered. So the battle has been
turned. “I am with thee”, then, O Christian, is the voice of One Whose
presence fills thy soul with dauntless courage. No fear when Jesus is
near. None can be defeated who have Him to bring them succour. The
presence of Christ with us puts an end to morbid apprehension and
ghastly cowardice. When we are told that Jesus is with
us, we remember that His is a presence which causes intense delight. We
have seen men with money, who were not happy; we have seen men with
honour, who were not happy; we have seen persons in power, with the
command of empires, yet they were not happy; but we never saw, and never
shall see, the individual who hath Jesus with him, that is not happy. To
be near Him, to have Him with us, is to have our fears relieved, our
griefs soothed, our wounds healed, and all our sorrows turned into joy.
One drop of Jesus’ love would turn the whole sea sweet. Yea, though the
bitterness within you seem to have penetrated your whole being, let but
Jesus whisper, “Thou art Mine and I am thine”, and the bitterness would
turn to honey at that one single word. Only a glimpse from Jesus’ eye,
and the darkness is turned to noon-day. Only one word from Jesus’ lips,
and the tempest that raged becomes calm, and the ruffled sea is still.
“I am with thee” bespeaks the presence then of One Who brings you
delight. And this presence, as I have already
hinted, transforms the soul. “When Jesus is with us, He makes us like
himself. He that lives near to Jesus becomes so Jesus-like, that others
“take knowledge of him that he has been with Jesus.” Put these thoughts
together, and you will see how infinitely desirable and how exquisitely
satisfactory the company of Christ is. But, ah! my words cannot tell
you, though I had the tongue of the orator or the sweeter strains of the
poet. Yea, the inspiration of the muse would fail to acquaint you with
it. You must know it for yourself, or else you can never realise how
transporting these words are—“I am with thee ”—Jesus present with His
own people. Now some of you know, by a happy
experience, times and seasons when Jesus is specially present with His
people. I trust we have often found Him so at the hour of prayer. Rising
in the morning, it is sweet to find in those few minutes we give to God
before we see the face of man, that, like the Psalmist, we can say,
“When I am awake I am still with thee.” Then at nightfall, when the
day's work is over, and we are about to lie down and rest, it is good to
find, as we kneel before Him once again, that Jesus is there! And, ah!
some of us have proved what it is in the watches of the night to have
His sweetest company. When darkness compasseth us, and silence awes us,
and sleep has deserted us, our soul has said, “Now will I speak with my
Beloved”, and we have always found Him awake. A sigh has reached His
ears; the fluttering of an unfledged prayer; a desire after Him has
brought Him near to our side, close to our couch, present to our heart.
We have thanked God for sleeplessness, when we have had our beloved
Master talking with us and indulging us with a blessed sense of
communion. And, oh! how near Jesus is to His people when they are
passing through the stage of penitential love. I hope you often get
there, when sensitive to your own imperfection and unworthiness before
God, you are abased and humbled, yet looking up at the same moment to
that dear cross on which He bled, because we sinned, you see your pardon
and acceptance written in crimson lines on the fair body of the dying
Saviour. I do not know that I have ever more tenderly felt the presence
of Jesus than when, while my heart has been broken with a sense of my
own worthlessness and insignificance, I have confidently fled for refuge
to the hope that is set before me in the finished sacrifice and the
perfect redemption that Christ has accomplished. But, beloved, Jesus is present to us
not only in our acts of penitence and devotion, but He is present with
his people in the battle of life. Yes, He will go with you to the
workshop. The street is not too common for Him to tread side by side
with you. Jesus can stand with you in the market. You can as truly
maintain fellowship with Christ in your buying and your selling, if your
commerce with the world is conducted in the fear of the Lord, as in your
praying and your reading, which are of small account, unless “ye have an
unction from the Holy One.” No kind of labour will ever make Christ take
an aversion to you, however humble your toil, however poor the chamber
in which that toil is carried on, or however rough may be the garb in
which you have to earn your daily bread. Jesus cares not for these. ”Tis
your soul He looks for; and if you hunger and thirst for Him, He will go
with you into the lowliest places, and you shall find it true, “ I,
I am with thee.” More especially, beloved friends, in
the ordinances of God’s house, may we look for the refreshment of the
Lords presence. Oh! what a beloved place this Tabernacle is when Jesus
is here, manifestly in our midst, and witnessed by many hearts. It would
be a poor meeting-house if only the minister and the congregation,
however large, were congregated together within its walls. Poor would it
be, notwithstanding all the accessories of worship, yea, even with the
bread and the wine, the elements of the communion supper, spread in rich
abundance, without the Lord Himself were here to bless the feast and
feed the communicants. But, ah! when the King sits at His table, then
our spikenard giveth forth a sweet smell, and our heart is merry within
us, even as the angels’ that are before the throne of God. Does He not
come to you as ye sit in the pews, beloved, and say to you, “I am with
thee”? and when ye gather yourselves together to partake of the
communion supper, is He not with you there? Join ye in the solemn hymn,
or do ye unite in earnest prayer? What is it that makes the service
enlivening, and elevating, instructive and fruitful, but the
consciousness of His ‘presence—this same “I am with thee.” Yes, and when the time shall come for
you to have done with ordinances—when the preachers voice shall no more
reach your ear; when the melody of sacred song shall cease to entrance
your senses; when you have joined here below for the last time in the
fellowship of the Supper of the Lord; for you must bear the clammy sweat
upon your brow, and wear the mortal paleness on your cheeks, as you are
about to pass through what they call the “gate of tears”—e’en then you
shall find it a gate of endless joy, because this shall be true to your
experience in the highest sense, “I am with thee.” Fear not the
darkness; dread not the loose pains, shrink not from the weakness,
tremble not at the advent of the grim King of Terrors. “I am with thee ”
will change the hue of that affliction, and when thou art very ill make
thee say that all is well. Oh! if my Lord would come and meet me,
my soul would stretch her wings in haste, ﬂy
swiftly through death’s iron gate, nor feel affrighted as she passed. So
it shall be with you. I have but skimmed the surface of this first
point—the presence of Christ—
“I am with thee.” Do not any of you skim it. Go into the depths and
enjoy it, beloved. The words still further express:

II. SYMPATHY.
Remember that Christ in very deed feels at His heart the sorrows of His
people. Are they in the furnace; He walks the fire with them. Are they
in the rivers; He says, “When thou passest through the rivers, I will be
with thee.” And this is grounded upon the precious doctrine of vital
union. Every believer is livingly one with Jesus. Jesus is the head, and
the believer is a member of the one mystical body. Now you see, whenever
a member suffers, the head must suffer, not only because the head wills
to suffer, but because of necessity; if there be a vital union, there
must be a real sympathy. Let this be, then, a matter of faith with us.
If I have believed in Jesus unto everlasting life, Jesus is one with me
as my head, and He must—whether I apprehend it or not at the time—-He
must be in sympathy with me. This He shows by the tender pity He has for
His people. Do not think He is ever hard or unfeeling towards His poor,
His afflicted, His depressed disciples. Nay, brethren, the heart of
Jesus is full of tenderness; His bowels melt with love, as He often
proves by the sweet converse He has with them. Though He may leave the
strong sometimes to bear for awhile the hardships, and grapple, as it
were, alone with the troubles of life, He will not leave His tried and
tempted ones, or suffer them to faint by the way. Like a mother that
lets her full-grown boy alone to shift for himself, but will scarce go
out of doors while the baby is ill, so will He watch over them. And has
not Jesus been very, very watchful over us in times of pain, and
weakness, and serious apprehension? You know He has. He has kept His
best succour till we had got into our worst plight. When we had spent
all and exhausted every resource, then He has come and brought Himself
to our aid, and we found Him our all in all. Oh! what true sympathy this
is! “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” He treats us better as we
grow worse. This is just the friend we want. One with us by vital union,
He proves His oneness by His tenderness. Now, beloved, if this be so,
the very first sympathy you ought to seek in any time of trouble is that
of Jesus. You have not always gone promptly to Him. You have been far
more ready to run off to some kinsman or neighbour, and ask counsel or
succour of an earthly helper. What would you think of a wife – would you
think she had much genuine confidence, much good understanding, much
true love to her husband, if, on any sudden exigency or anxiety, she
left him, fled from her home, crossed the road, entered another person’s
house, and poured into another man’s ears the story of her plaint or her
peril? You would feel convinced that there was a want of mutual love and
reciprocal fellowship. And should it ever be that your soul goes after
some poor mortal for consolation, when the beloved Bridegroom of your
spirit can afford you all you want, to ask advice? It is often a helpful
means, but go first to Jesus. Tell Him all: pour out your heart before
Him. He is with you. Oh! will you neglect One Who is with you, and play
Him so ill a part as to seek another’s help when He is ready to give you
all His help—His sympathising help in time of need? The sympathy of
Jesus will, in all probability, be most clearly manifested and most
richly enjoyed by you at such times as you are most in need of it. Thus,
when you are persecuted for His sake, He will not hide His face from
you. We are not likely to be burnt at the stake, or even cast into
prison for the profession of His name in these days of civil and
religious liberty; but there are divers tortures from which our fine
sensibility shrinks, such as household persecutions. Little petty spites
are often vented upon believers for Jesus Christ’s sake. Now do not
think a strange thing has happened to you. Take it as a natural
consequence of not being of the world, and then hear the Saviour say, “I
am with thee. I am reproached in thy reproach: I am scorned in the scorn
that is cast on thee.” Paul persecuted
Jesus when he thought he had
only persecuted some poor Jews. And the enemy persecutes Jesus when he
persecutes a believer. “I am with thee”, then. Will you not say, “Lord,
I will bear it for thy sake, and in thy company. Ay, if it were a
thousand times worse, I would feel honoured to endure it, if Thou art
there”? You will find Him with you sympathetically in your common
sorrows. Remember, Jesus does not look for extraordinary occasions in
which to sympathise with His people, though He will do it peculiarly
then. But at all other times He is a faithful feeling friend. “Jesus
wept.” It was at the death of Lazarus. Lazarus was only an ordinary
saint—an ordinary believer. There was nothing so remarkable about his
death as to make it exceptional. Think not for a moment that in the loss
you have sustained Jesus will keep aloof. With the grief that now weighs
down your spirit He fully sympathises. In the griefs which are common to
mankind, He bears you company. But if you should ever come into deeper
waters—if you should have to cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me?” you shall hear Jesus then say still, “I am with thee”, for
He knows what strong temptations mean, and deep depressions and
despondences that border on despair. He has passed through all, that as
the Captain of our salvation He might be made “perfect through
suffering.” “Tempted in all points like as we are”, there is no grief in
which Jesus is not near to us; we have but to open the eye of faith, and
we shall see Him with us, even in the worst extremities of grief and
pain. “I am with thee in sympathy.” This shall be found anywhere and
everywhere true by the believer—ay, even in death itself, for Jesus
died. He knows the death sweat, for He sweat, as it were, great drops of
blood. He knows the fever, for He said, “I thirst.” He knows the
fainting, the languishing, for He said, “I am poured out like water; I
am brought into the dust of death.” He knows death in its severest form.
He died as you will not die. Under the divine displeasure He passed
away, but you shall have the light of the divine countenance amidst the
shades of death. Fear not, therefore, that Jesus will forsake you. You
have Jesus’ sympathy. I want you to feel that. Well do I know myself
what a precious thing sympathy is. A little child’s sympathy will do you
good. "Mother," said a little girl, “I do not know why Mrs. So-and-so
wants me to go into her house so often, but she told me, when I came
home to-night, to be sure and go to-morrow, for I comforted her so, now
her husband was dead; and do you know, mother, all I do is, when she
cries, I put my face against hers and I cry too; and she says that
comforts her.” And so it does. It is just that. We are not alone. “Some-
body - somebody cares for me.” We shall never despair while we feel that
is true. Now there may be somebody here to-night who is alone in London
and you had better be alone in the deserts of Sahara. To be alone in
London is to be alone indeed. And you are thinking, “Nobody cares for
me.” But if thou wilt take Christ to be thy friend - if thou trustest in
Him - Jesus will care for thee, and He will surely help thee; for He is
not one of those who will put you off by saying, “Be ye warmed and be ye
filled.” He will practically show His love to you, and you shall yet
rejoice that Jesus is with you, and you are not alone, though you seem
alone.” There I leave that second point, praying that you may all know
the sympathy of Jesus. Once more:

III.
CO-OPERATION is implied in the words “I am with thee.” This was just
what Paul wanted. He had come down to the city to preach, and God said
to him, “I have much people in this city: I am with thee.” So Paul went
to his preaching with a cheerful heart, for he felt that if the Lord was
with him, it was good to preach. With good sowing, there would be good
reaping. Now listen, worker - worker for God - and see if there be not
music for thine ear in this thought. Jesus co-operates with thee. How
so? Why, He commands providence. All things are ordered according to His
will. The Father hath given all power into the hands of Jesus. He
regulates the fields of providence, that they may produce the best
results for you. Go on, confidently, then. All things are favourable to
you. As Mahomet said, in his way, to his followers, “Swiftly on to the
battle, and win! I can hear the trampings of the angel Gabriel’s horse
as he rides into the thick of the battle to help you.” They believed it,
and were comforted. “What he said in falsehood, Jesus may say in
truth—-“I am with you.” You can hear the footfalls of the Prince
Emmanuel. His power is ruling all creation, to produce the grand result
of His glory in the salvation of souls. “I am with you” ; that is, “I
will prepare human hearts for your message.” You that talk to others
will often find others ready to be talked to. It is a cheering thought
to the preacher, that he has always a picked congregation, selected by
divine providence, that out of them divine grace may make a further
selection. They are prepared. As the rain and the wind and the frost
will prepare the clods for the plough and the seed, so do Gods
providence and the work of grace prepare men’s hearts for the gospel. “I
am with you.” Moreover, worker, Jesus is with you, helping you. He will
suggest suitable thoughts; He will give you right arguments; He will
often guide you to fitting words. Only trust Him, and when you go about
His business, the Holy Spirit shall be your strength. He will be with
you to back up the word you utter, by the power of the Holy Ghost going
with it to convince men that what you say is God’s Word to them. Fear
not, therefore. If the converting of souls devolved upon you, it would
never be done. If a nation had to be reformed, and the whole of another
nation had to do it, it would never be achieved; but the Spirit of the
Lord is not straitened, and what He wills to do He can accomplish, and
none can say Him nay. Lastly. O earnest worker, Christ is
with you, to accept your service. Nobody has taken any notice of you
lately. You have gone plodding on at your work, with not a creature to
help, and none to praise. Even your friend who used sometimes to give
you a nod of approbation, appears not to have observed you lately. Never
mind! never mind! No servant that is deeply absorbed in his work cares
much about what other servants may say about him by way of commendation;
but if his master comes along, and says, “Well done, good and faithful
servant!” that is what he wants to cheer him. Some people will be
overhauling your character; I know they do mine; and they are extremely
welcome, for I care not as much for their opinion as for the barking of
dogs in the streets. If my Master were angry with me, I should mind it;
but they are no masters of mine, and they may say what they like. If my
Master smile, all the world may frown; it does not signify. But if my
Master frowned, then if all said, “Well done!” it were but a poor, poor
recompense to me. Servant of God, be this, then, your joy. “I am with
thee”, says Jesus, “to see what thou art doing - to accept and take thy
will for the deed full often - to read thy real motives where men
misconstrue them. I am with thee. Therefore, go on thy way.” Sunday
School teachers, tract distributors, or whatever thou mayest happen to
be - in one word, beloved child of God, seeking to serve Jesus - take,
then, this afresh from Jesus’ lips, “I am with thee”, and go thy way, in
the power of this thy might, to serve thy Lord without weariness, till
He shall say, “Come up higher.” “I am with thee.” Oh! you that have not any Saviour to
be with you, I do pity you; but I would say this word to you: He is
still to be had. There is still:

“Life in a look at the Crucified One.”

Jesus still has blood in which to wash the guilty—still has room in His
heart for needy sinners, and the way to have Jesus for thy Saviour is to
trust Him simply, and to rely on Him implicitly. May God grant thee
grace to do this, for His mercy’s sake! Amen.